Canada’s economy adds jobs in June, jobless rate rises to 6 pct

Canadian economy added 31.8k jobs in June. The jobless rate rose to 6 percent as a sharp rise of Canadians joined the labor force. But the details were slightly mixed. Part-time employment led the rise, but full-time work still added about one third of the total. By type, the public sector led the way as private employment was effectively flat. A rise of 22k in self-employment brought the overall tally to 31.8k.

Goods-producing sector employment rebounded in June, with 46.6k net jobs added. Particular strength could be seen in construction and manufacturing. On the contrary, the service side of the economy recorded a four-month streak of gains broken as net employment dropped 14.7k. Driving the drop were declines in trade and accommodation and food services.

Ontario drove the national gain, adding 34.9k positions. Ontario’s labor force also led the way higher, contributing 56.2k net positions and resulting in a 0.2 percentage point rise in the jobless rate to 5.9 percent. Developments elsewhere were more modest by comparison.

Total hours worked fell slightly in June, which together with a healthy result last year resulted in just a 1.4 percent year-on-year gain. Wage growth also eased, to 3.5 percent for permanent employees. Looking beyond the month-to-month volatility, year-on-year job gains continued to slowly decelerate from the strong rate of 2017, down to 1.2 percent in June. The trend measure entered the negative territory, at -2.8k.

“If the relative softness of prior months' jobs figures were not enough to move Governor Poloz and company off a July hike, there is nothing in this latest data likely to do the trick. We continue to look for a policy interest rate hike on July 11th”, stated TD Economics in a research report.

At 16:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Canadian Dollar was neutral at -2.00075, while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was slightly bearish at -69.9832. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex